Do You Believe in Magic?

People in Show Business love failure — others', of course, not their own. They flock around it, gloat about it, talk about it and occasionally even learn from it. Recently, a new Cirque du Soleil show opened in Las Vegas, toplined by magician Criss Angel and while it's too soon to write off Criss Angel Believe as a failure, there's already a flurry of schadenfreude in the air.

That may be understandable as it's the union of two entities that some have been dying to see suffer. Cirque du Soleil produces magnificent shows but they're a little pretentious, a little overpriced and in Vegas, a little too ubiquitous. The phrase "stretching themselves too thin" has been uttered. There are presently six Cirque shows playing there with at least three more rumored as in development. That's a lot of Cirque.

Criss Angel is a successful entertainer but his work — previously almost exclusively on television — has been criticized for certain excesses of ego and of maybe/sorta/kinda skirting the magician's television code. That's the unwritten credo that says that you don't employ camera trickery, you don't put anything on the screen that you couldn't put on a stage in front of a live audience. Most magicians who appear on the tube have stretched that principle or found loopholes in it…for example, editing a routine down so it goes much faster on television (and therefore seems more remarkable) than would be possible live. Or doing an exterior levitation feat and cropping the shot so the home viewers don't see the overhead cranes that were clearly visible to anyone who was there on tape day.

Many in the magic community admire Angel's showmanship and ingenuity but feel he has broken that credo. His partisans — and he has many — said that was nonsense and that his new Vegas show would prove how incredible he could be in a live setting. Well, Believe ain't proving anything of the sort. Not so far, anyway. There have been bad reviews and reports of terrible business, along with the inevitable jokes about the magician making his audience disappear…and those who savor the flops of others couldn't be happier.

I haven't seen the show but a magician friend who has reported that it has a few stunning and new effects — one or two that are almost worth the hefty admission price alone — but that it all fails to coalesce into a coherent, consistent presentation. Renovations are said to be underway and I'd sure like to see them pull this one off. If Cirque du Soleil and Criss Angel can simultaneously live up to their reputations, it could be a helluva good show.